Chapter 28
Kellen
When I can finally think straight, I run full speed up to my brother’s office, even taking the stairs because I don’t want to wait for the elevator.
His assistant Melody, a woman who has a voice like a man who’s smoked cigarettes for his entire life, smiles at me when I walk into the office suite, but I barely acknowledge her before rushing into his office.
Matthias sits behind his desk talking on the phone, so I flop down in the chair in front of him and try to get my thoughts together.
A woman I spent a few nights with four years ago before I met the woman I love is dead.
She had a child, a son who’s mine, whose name is Elias.
How could any of this be true? I can’t believe it.
Unable to sit still because adrenaline courses through my body, I jump up and start pacing back and forth across the carpet, from the window facing the street below to the bar in the corner of my brother’s office.
Matthias stares at me in a mix of confusion and worry as the person he’s talking to continues on with their conversation.
It’s like a normal day at work for him, while my life is literally falling apart around me.
He finishes his call a minute or two later and immediately asks, “What the hell is going on with you? Are you okay?”
I shake my head, not knowing what part to tell him first. The part about the dead woman or the part about the kid I didn’t know existed until a few minutes ago.
“No, I’m not okay. I’m the farthest from fucking okay that you can find on a damn map. If you locate okay, you’ll see it’s a million fucking miles from this spot right here,” I say, starting to ramble as I continue to pace through his office.
“What’s going on?” he asks, as if it’s a question I could answer like I would normally.
I stop in front of his desk and try to piece the words in my head into a coherent sentence. All that comes out is, “My life is a goddamned trainwreck.”
Instantly, I regret my choice of words, but I start walking again anyway. I don’t know where to start with this story.
Still calm, Matthias asks, “Why? What happened in the past half hour between you interrupting my pulled pork sandwich and you running into my office like you’re on fire?”
As I walk past his desk again, I look over at him. “What happened? The end of my life as I know it. That’s what fucking happened. When Salem finds out, she’s going to leave me so fast my head is going to fucking spin off my shoulders. And I won’t blame her. Jesus, how the hell did this happen?”
My frantic ravings make him stand up, and he walks around his desk to intercept me on my next pass through his office. Grabbing me by the shoulders, he stops me, forcing me to answer him.
“You’re out of control, Kellen. Settle down. Tell me what’s wrong. Does it have to do with your work here?”
I roll my eyes at that question. I guess I have it coming, but in my defense, I haven’t been an HR problem, except for that issue with my last assistant and lunchtime, in over four years.
Four years. Jesus, that’s how old that kid is. Do four-year-olds know how to talk already? They must, right? Matthias’s kid is four, isn’t he? He knows how to talk.
Jesus, I have a son who already talks. What else do four-year-olds do? Fuck! I don’t know. As an uncle, I don’t really have to pay attention to things like that.
“What do four-year-old boys do?” I ask him, sure he can help me figure that out.
“What? Why are you asking me that? You know what they do. Theo is that old. What the hell is all of this about?”
I open my mouth to explain what I’m talking about, but nothing comes out. Even my damn vocal cords are stunned by this news, I guess.
Matthias guides me to one of the chairs in front of his desk and sits me down. “Okay, from the top. I’m hoping to God you asking about what four-year-olds do that this problem isn’t with work. You didn’t offend someone who brought their kid to work today, did you?”
“No, and why do you always think the worst of me?” I ask, dreading when I’ll actually get the real reason I rushed down here out of my mouth.
He sits down behind his desk again and sighs. “I deserve that. I’m sorry, Kellen. You’ve been an asset here for years. I shouldn’t have asked that. You aren’t the same man you were when we had to hire Salem to get you out of that mess years ago. Now tell me what’s going on.”
His mention of Salem makes my heart sink.
She trusted me to not be that man, as Matthias calls it, and I swear to God I haven’t been.
I’ve never caused a second of trouble here at King Industries since then.
I’ve been a good employee and a good boyfriend.
Hell, even my brothers would say I’m not the same asshole guy I used to be.
Still, she’s never going to be okay with this. Never.
“Kellen, you’re making me worried. What the hell is going on?” Matthias demands, his patience evaporating.
I don’t know how to answer him, so I just blurt out what I know. “Amelia Martin, a woman I had a relationship with right before Salem, died a couple months ago. Her sister is Emily Martin. She called me today to tell me that Amelia’s four-year-old son, Elias, is mine.”
The words fly out of my mouth like they can’t wait to escape from my head. When I finish talking, I look across the desk at my brother and see he’s stunned. His mouth hangs open, and he stares at me wide-eyed.
“Holy shit! I always expected this kind of thing to happen one day, but now that it has, I’m shocked.”
“What do you mean you expected it? Why from me? Why not from Marius?” I ask, wondering why my oldest brother feels the need to kick me when I’m down.
“Because you were a bigger dog than he was,” he says before switching into CEO mode. “Onto this child Emily Martin says is yours. Is there any chance she’s just looking for a payday? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know you have money.”
God, I wish that could be the case, but my gut says no. “If that were the case, wouldn’t her sister have gotten in touch with me four years ago?”
“Maybe, maybe not. She and her sister are two different people. You said her sister died a couple months ago, so if she was looking to get money from you, it would be now.”
I nod since that makes some sense. “Maybe.”
Matthias springs into action, turning to his laptop to search for something. “I think we need a PI for this. We need someone who can find out all there is to know about these Martin women and this little boy.”
While I fantasize about this PI he gets telling me it’s all a hoax or a money grab, Matthias calls the guy. “Greene, what’s new? You know how it is. Same old, same old. Yes, Ava loved the gift for the baby.”
As the man talks, my brother covers his phone and whispers, “I can’t remember what he sent. Damn! I think it might have been soup, but that doesn’t sound right.”
I can’t help Matthias with his problem. I’ve got my own, and they’re much bigger than forgetting some lame gift someone gave his family.
“Greene, I’ve got a project I need you to work on for me and my brother Kellen. Here, let me put you on speaker so we can all be part of this conversation.”
A second later, I hear a man’s voice come through Matthias’s phone. “Okay, what’s up?” he asks in a gruff voice almost as deep as my brother’s assistant’s voice.
Matthias points at me to talk, so I start explaining all I know. “A woman called me today. Emily Martin. She’s the sister of a woman named Amelia who I knew a few years ago and died two months ago in some train accident.”
The PI jumps in and says, “A train crash? That’s not something you hear every day.”
Ignoring his comment, I continue. “This Emily says Amelia had a baby four years ago that’s mine.”
Without missing a beat, Greene asks, “Any chance it could be?”
“No. Not at all,” I say initially, but my confidence quickly fades away. “Well, I guess anything’s possible, but I find it hard to believe I’ve never heard anything about this supposed son of mine until today.”
“Okay, what’s this Amelia’s last name? Was it Martin too?”
I wince as Matthias stares at me in what seems to be growing disgust. “I don’t know.” Feeling defensive, I say, “What? We weren’t planning for a goddamned future. We hooked up a few times. Last names were the last thing on our minds.”
My brother cringes, but Greene just says, “I’ll start with her name as Martin and see what I can do from there. Do you know the child’s name?”
“Elias,” I answer, slowly growing used to a name I’d never heard in my life before this morning.
“Okay. Any idea when he was born?”
I shake my head. “No. All I know is he’s four, his name is Elias, and he lives with his aunt Emily Martin. She’s his guardian now.”
“Do you know where he was born?”
Again, I have to answer that I have no idea. In truth, I barely know more than he does now.
“No.”
“Where was this Amelia from?” Greene asks, clearly not understanding what I was saying about my relationship with her back then.
“No idea,” I answer as Matthias twists his expression into one of complete revulsion.
“You don’t know much, do you?” he says, obviously unhappy with me now.
Before I can again say we weren’t in that kind of relationship, Greene says, “Well, I can see what I dig up. Are we thinking this is a rush job?”
Matthias leans forward toward the phone and says, “As fast as you can, Greene. I’ll make it worth your while since I know you probably have other things you’ve got going on.”
“Okay, Matthias. I hear you. Fast and full report. I’m on it. Hang tough, guys. I’ll get back to you as soon as I have something.”
The PI ends the call, and I sit there wondering how the fuck my life got turned upside down with one vague message. If there was ever a day I wish I had called off, it’s today.
“Don’t worry. Greene will find out all there is to know.”
I know my brother is trying to be supportive, but finding out anything more isn’t going to make how I feel right now any better.
If what Emily said is true, I don’t know what I’m going to do because Salem doesn’t even want to get married, much less have kids.
Even more, if she did change her mind about kids, I highly doubt she’d want someone else’s child in her life.
What a mess.
Then I remember how fast news travels in the King family. “Hey, don’t tell anyone about this, okay? Not even Ava. The last thing I need is having everyone knowing about this before I find out what’s really going on.”
Nodding, my brother says, “Okay. How are you going to break this to Salem?”
That I actually know the answer to. “I’m not. Not until your PI there finds out something definitive. Until then, only you and I know about this, okay?”
Again, Matthias pledges not to say a word about the possibility that I have a son out there, a four-year-old I’ve never met who’s named Elias. I know he likes to tell Ava everything, but God, I hope he can refrain from sharing this with her.
I don’t need to have the entire family ganging up on me for this screw up.